The online platform X has provoked widespread anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
